Crossing to Safety

I got home again just fine and don't really have much to say about it.  I have had "sinking spells" where I just want to close my eyes for a few minutes a couple of times, especially on Wednesday when I traveled and returned to Seattle to face the complete day still to come, but other than that the jet lag thing doesn't seem to affect me much.  I am fine today and things seem to be back to normal.

I wanted to blog today about a book I read on this trip called Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.  This is the guy who wrote Angle of Repose, his first novel I read, and both Judy and I were blown away with his writing style and command of story development.  Angle of Repose was a wonderful book, and I didn't really know what to expect from this other one.  Would it be the same?

The story revolves around the friendship that formed between 2 couples, and the many ways in which people interact.  It takes place in many places, but the central theme is the annual summer pilgrimage to the Lang Families' summer home on a lake in Vermont.  The way the couples meet as new PhD's recruited into the Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison's English Department as instructors, the pressure to be accepted into the department and get started on a tenure track in 1937, the year that they arrive, and the many ways the story unfolds.  Different characters have obvious and hidden traits, the relationship between the men and women is hugely important, and the interplay within the married couples. 

I could see parallels in my own life with the stories and friendships that were portrayed here, and it brought to mind old friends I have not seen in years, and old friends I see all the time.  I have often said that for Judy and I there was a critical time between ages 17 and 24 where we made friends with people where the friendships lasted a lifetime.  It is true - we still see certain people we met at UNH and Mizzou, travel to see their kids get married, go out of our way to see them when we are on vacation, keep current on FB (the modern equivalent of writing letters), and call them on their birthdays (Happy Birthday, Anne!).  In Crossing to Safety there are seminal events recounted in painstaking detail at times, with the benefit of hindsight to identify the critical elements and interactions that will carry the story into the future. 

Stegner's writing in this book is as good as it was in Angle of Repose.  The story is not as hard to read, and the characters are both familiar and engaging.  You feel the losses, celebrate the triumphs, and cheer for them at every turn since they are so easy to identify with and make your own.  But it is the writing that keeps me from putting the book down.

Judy purchased a copy at the Upper Case Bookstore in Snohomish for $6.50.  I'm sure you can find it elsewhere, even at the library.  I haven't checked on the Kindle Store, but some of Stegner's works must be there.